Almost everyone in the industry who’s had a chance to interact one on one with a Googler in the past 6 months has probably noticed that it “feels” different from the interactions of the past 3 years. Robert Scoble did a good job describing it with regard to his recent visit to the ‘plex:
…every interaction I had with Googlers this time was different than the last time I was on campus. They seemed more humble. More comfortable. More inquisitive. And, when I gave them chances to say “you’re an idiot” they didn’t take it (and I gave them many opportunities). This is a different Google than I was used to. And it’s the small things that I noticed.
One other small thing I noticed? A lot more blog listening behavior. Carl Sjogreen, who runs the Google Calendar team, told me that the first thing he does every morning is do this search: “Google Calendar.” He says he answers everyone’s questions, even if you’re a kid in another country with only four readers.
There’s a lot of other very good examples of this shift in behavior, including:
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Vanessa Fox & the Webmaster Central team’s blog
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Googlers (who aren’t Matt) interacting after hours with SEOs
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Googlers reading and participating in blogs and forums
Personally, I’m thrilled to see this change. I honestly did not expect that they’d go down this path until they were faced with a loss or failure. Google’s communication structure has gone from hubris to relative humility in a remarkably short period of time.
Do you get the same sense? What have been your experiences with Google of late?
